Facebook launches new tools for Groups

Here’s the replay of Monday 12 February’s The #SocialMediaShow which was broadcast live via my Facebook Profile from a chilly Cardiff! I cover the week’s social media news including Facebook’s latest results plus Headline, Question Time, Tools Talk, Tip Of The Week, Number of the Week and Word of the Week.

The #SocialMediaShow is aimed at people who work on a daily basis with or who are interested in social media. It’s purpose is to increase your knowledge and improve your use of social media. If you’d like to keep up on the latest news throughout the week plus get access to insider tips, then join my newsletter subscribers or Facebook Messenger subscribers.

The show notes below contain relevant links mentioned in The #SocialMediaShow.

Headline: “Publishers eye LinkedIn as Facebook’s reliability falters” on Digiday.com – In this article, The Times and Sunday Times reveal they plan to publish for first time to LinkedIn and Huffpost UK has plans for new content. Publishers like the FT are testing video too. Worth a read.Question Time: Would you be happy to give Facebook your payment card details? Let me know in the Comments below.Tools Talk:Amazon’s Polly WordPress plugin – a new tool that converts blog posts to podcasts. Could be a great and quick way to distribute your content. I’ll be trying it out soon.Tip Of The Week: Use Twitter’s thread feature to tweet bilingually eg Welsh and EnglishWord of the Week: API – Application Programming Interface. The connector or bridge between 2 services. Eg Twitter’s API connects it to Buffer.Number Of The Week: An amazing 600 million visual searches are performed every month using the Lens feature on Pinterest. Have you tried it yet?

FACEBOOK NEWS
1. The way that impressions are measured is changing to ‘Viewable impressions’. That is, your post has to appear on the screen on a user. Whilst this is more accurate, it does mean that the stats will take a hit so Facebook is displaying both the old and new measure during a transition phase.
2. There’s a new version of Page Insights on the Facebook Pages Manager App.
3. The European Communities Summit took place in London on Friday and there were 5 announcements. Firstly, a new Facebook Community Leadership Program will provide $10m in grants to people creating communities plus there will also be Facebook Groups for Facebook Power Admins. You can apply to be part of the Program here: http://communities.fb.com/ Secondly, Facebook have smartened up Admin tools which are now all located in one place. Thirdly, there’s a new tool – Group announcements that appear at top of Group which replaces ‘pin to top’. Fourthly, there’s a dedicated rules section and lastly, you’ll soon be able to personalise colour.
4. Facebook is testing a downvote button on Comments on Facebook Page posts.
5. Facebook appears to have rolled out a new Playlist feature on profiles for showcasing and organizing saved videos – thanks to Matt Navarra of The Next Web for that one. Seems that profiles will soon be able to organise videos in the same way that Pages can with Feature and Playlists in the Video tab.
6. Facebook appears to be testing a new location-sharing feature within Stories. Add your photos/videos to a particular location and view others’ content from the same location.

FACEBOOK MESSENGER NEWS
7. New official website dedicated to Messenger has been launched at https://messenger.fb.com. It’s aimed at developers but loks useful to all with plenty of case studies and stats.
8. Your emoji status update – Facebook Messenger is testing the ability to add an emoji to a profile photo in Messenger to let your friends know what you’re doing or feeling at the moment. It will be visible on the activity tab.
9. New meetup feature on Messenger which I’ve referred to before in December is being seen by Facebook users in the US.
10. According to Gartner, 60% of millennials have used Messagebots and 70% of those report positive experience.

INSTAGRAM NEWS
11. Instagram is testing ability to share Stories although there is no sign of ability to share posts yet.
12. Instagram is testing new cinemagraph feature – a video format that features an animation in an isolated element of the video while the rest of the action is frozen as a still image.
13. Screenshot and screen recording alerts for Stories are now live.
14. Rights manager now protects content on Instagram as well as Facebook. Worried about people stealing your photos and videos? You can apply for Rights Manager here – https://www.facebook.com/rights_manager/apply

WHATSAPP NEWS
15. WhatsApp payments are being tested in India.
16. Watch out for a WhatsApp scam offering a free pair of Adidas trainers.

LINKEDIN NEWS
17. LinkedIn is testing an interesting new feature called ‘magnet’ to advertise posts to specific users. This new LinkedIn feature uses AI to pull in the right people for your post. Using the content of your post and your endorsed skills, people who share your skills and may be interested in your share are notified. Great way to enhance distribution of your content on LinkedIn.

TWITTER NEWS
18. Twitter announced its 4th quarter and 2017 annual results and reported its first quarterly profits as a public company with a net income of $91 million for the company in the last quarter which compares with Facebook’s $4.2 billion in the same period. There was no increase in Twitter’s 330 million monthly active users.

PINTEREST NEWS
19. Coming soon to iOS – text search will give option to use Lens. eg type in umbrella and you’ll have the option to view umbrellas too.
20. Pinterest have launched a new content planning calendar.

SOCIAL ADVERTISING NEWS
21) Collection ads will be launched soon on Instagram Stories.

AND FINALLY:
Questions are being asked on social media about the location of Greggs in Glasgow. Clearly this guy has way too much time on his hands.

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